Sergeant Barnes: The Last Mission (COMPLETE)

Chapter 33: Nick

Theme song: Arrival to Earth by Steve Jablonsky

We were already having a field day when Stark's message came through.

Maria and I were still dealing with the first file he had sent us, the list of over five thousand names that were associated with HYDRA. We had fed it through our system, and immediately, matches started popping up. Scientists, soldiers, assassins, criminal, politicians, all of these and more that we had been trying to locate for years and couldn't find, and then some that we didn't know about until then.

Then the dead men started popping up. Fighters that had been dead for plenty of time, but were still active soldiers in HYDRA. They all had some mention of 'Project Boot' in their file, which I assumed meant the cyborgs that Barnes had warned us about.

There was one file that stood out even with those ones, though. A ghost file, one that not even my best guys could recover. There was no name, no identification, no nothing. Clearly, someone didn't want us to know about him, or her.

Maria had wanted to start taking out the matches we had found and assigning them to agents. She argues that 'the sooner we take them out, the sooner that they are no longer a threat,' which was a good point, but I shut her down. I wasn't making another move until I heard back from Natasha or one of the others. I sincerely hoped that they were all still alive, but if something had gone wrong, we needed to be ready to back them up.

I sat down, rubbing my forehead and drinking the quad-shot I had just gotten from the staff room. I was considering checking in with the team when a priority alert message came through straight to my personal computer. I opened it, knowing that the only reason anyone ought to be sending me something through here was if it was an emergency.

Then again, the message was from Tony, so I had no guarantee this time.

I opened the message. There was another file, with a similar tag to the first one he had sent me, along with a message: Nick, we think these things are coming to you. Get SHIELD out of there, ASAP. We'll try to stop them, but expect company in 13ish hours

Not good. I clicked on the file, expecting the worst. I wasn't disappointed.

There were almost two hundred files, similar to the ones from earlier, but these weren't labeled with names. They all had eight digit identification numbers, and they all had the same face on them, so there was no telling who these people were supposed to be.

I had an idea though. There had been about the same number of files linked to Project Boot. I pulled up both lists and ran a comparison program through them. If these were supposed to be the same people, then the program would find similarities, and match the first files to the second ones.

I didn't have to wait long. Matches starting showing up right away. I opened one, and both files came up, side by side. My computer screen highlighted the matching information, which there wasn't much of, but as more matches came up, I saw a pattern. All of the identification numbers were based on the birthdays of the dead but active files. For some reason, the dates were listed in American format, MM/DD/YYYY.

I leaned back and stared at my screen. If all of these were cyborgs, and they were coming to SHIELD, we were in trouble. I activated my desk phone and set it to call the whole building.

"Attention all agents, begin evacuation protocol. This is not a drill. Begin the evacuation protocol."

I cut the line, and a few seconds later, I got a call on my personal phone. Maria.

"Agent Hill?"

"Evacuation, Nick?"

"Stark seems to think that we have an army of cyborgs on the way," I explained, my voice low despite being alone in my office. "I'd rather not take chances. Get everyone out, and get to the safe zones."

"Yes, sir."

The call ended, and I put my cell back in my pocket. I rested my chin in my hands as I returned my attention to the computer screen.

Nearly all of the files had been linked birthday to ID number. The program finished, and every file had a match. All of them, except for one on each list. One of them was the ghost file, so whoever HYDRA wanted to keep a secret must have been born on...I looked at the identification number for the last cyborg...July 4th, 1918.

July 4th, 1918.

...

...

...

Steve.

Steve was HYDRA.

I closed my computer down. There was no way. I knew Rogers, and he was everything except a Nazi, and he would never have joined HYDRA, not on his own. There was a mistake, there had to be. Cap would never join HYDRA.

But the date. It was right there, on the screen, just a minute ago.

It wasn't even possible! I had seen his funeral, five years ago. He was very much in that coffin, and very dead. I was still trying to accept that.

I hadn't seen his brain, though. I hadn't bothered to look. The scientists that prepared the body, they could have been HYDRA. They could have taken it, and covered up the surgery without any of us knowing. Take the brain to Germany, do whatever the bloody...I didn't even want to think about it.

Barnes. Bucky was there. If he fought cyborg Steve, would he know? Would Steve hurt Bucky, or anyone of his other friends? Could he fight back, like Barnes could? Would HYDRA let that happen twice?

No, they wouldn't. They weren't that stupid. They would make sure that Steve couldn't fight back on his own, and Barnes probably had no idea. All of the cyborg files had the same appearance on the screen, and none of the Avengers would be able to tell the difference.

This was bad. This was so bad.

I stood up, and tried to get a grip. I couldn't help them from here, as much as I wanted to, but I could evacuate SHIELD. I could give them a safe place to come back to if they make it out alive. There was nothing else that could be done.

I started gathering my stuff. We had less than thirteen hours to get out of Upstate New York. It was time to focus.